Mercola can be a bit screwy sometimes, but the more personal research I do the more right he becomes on more things. This one isn’t news to me at all.
I am with you here. It is a great idea to be an informed patient and take an active role in ones health.
In every aspect of the society we live in (esp. the US) we are consumers because we are always being sold something. So the idea is: be a cagey consumer. Don’t blow your cash on colon-blow or some such other crap (pun may or may not have been intended).
-chris
Is a DC a chiropracter? Is Christopher Kent = Dr. Mercola?
The medical community does not recognize chiropractors…as medical practioners. I think they have gained more respect over the years (though I’m not sure how much), but they are not the same as MDs, RNs, etc…
That said, I do enjoy reading Mercola anyway. Most MDs don’t know much about nutrition.
Another article written by a chiropractor that has no clue or is intentionally trying to discredit scientific medicine. There’s no doubt that prescription drugs are potentially dangerous due to side effects or improper use but to claim they are more dangerous than cocaine or meth is plain ignorance. I won’t go into details of illicit drug use but address a little the article. The fundamental flaw is comparing the two populations most likely to use the illicit and prescription drugs.
On one hand you have mostly stupid but young and healthy persons and on the other mostly chronically debilitated, sick and elderly people. The latter are more likely to die by NOT taking their meds than the other way around. They, as a group, are alive exactly because of use of modern medicine and prescription drugs, and while deaths do occur as a result of their use, one cannot compare them to illicit drugs. Another chiropractor thinking they can treat the world by spinal manipulation.
[quote]catone wrote:
… The fundamental flaw is comparing the two populations most likely to use the illicit and prescription drugs.
On one hand you have mostly stupid but young and healthy persons and on the other mostly chronically debilitated, sick and elderly people. The latter are more likely to die by NOT taking their meds than the other way around. They, as a group, are alive exactly because of use of modern medicine and prescription drugs, and while deaths do occur as a result of their use, one cannot compare them to illicit drugs… [/quote]
Exactly.
“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food”
- Hippocrates, 460-370 BC
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
catone wrote:
… The fundamental flaw is comparing the two populations most likely to use the illicit and prescription drugs.
On one hand you have mostly stupid but young and healthy persons and on the other mostly chronically debilitated, sick and elderly people. The latter are more likely to die by NOT taking their meds than the other way around. They, as a group, are alive exactly because of use of modern medicine and prescription drugs, and while deaths do occur as a result of their use, one cannot compare them to illicit drugs…
Exactly.[/quote]
Damn - Beaten to it.
I totally agree that there are many deaths related to prescribed drugs (either taking them or not) but what’s the ratio of deaths to prescriptions? I would suspect it is quite low (not that it is not a cause for concern).
Deaths amongst illicit drug users on paper are much lower but how many deaths occur compared to the number of people taking them? I’d suspect this ratio is much higher.
At the end of the day we need to be educated patients and ask questions certainly but we also need to have some faith in the medics that are treating us. They may not be perfect but perfection in that field is likely to be impossible.
While Mercola may be a little off the rocker, there definitely is something wrong with the system. Check this out from today -
Drug Doesn’t Slow Artery Clogs, Study Says
Finding Indicates Vytorin Lacks Positive Side Effect of Other Cholesterol Medications
“Oh yeah, the drug combo that costs more doesn’t do anything for you, and may actually be worse for you than taking the single drug. And it took 2 years for us to tell you - our bad.”
My faith in the wondrous modern medical industry dies a little more each day and has been since long before I knew who Mercola was. It’s an admixture of stupendous progress and disgusting, arrogant and tragic abuse. Those old debilitated folks would most of them never get so debilitated if they ignored most of what they told long before they got old and debilitated. Once they are that way then yes, they are then in a position without much other choice than to take up residence on the prescription plantation and let the slavery begin.
Prescription drugs kill more people yearly than illegal drugs and alcohol combined.
I stopped seeing my general practitioner MD 8 years ago. Since then I haven’t taken an antibiotic… and well, I’ve had only 2 colds since and nothing else.
My chiropractor, on the other hand, is a God-send.